The subject invention broadly relates to information handling systems and methods related thereto. The invention more particularly relates to the field of performance tools used to display and analyze system performance variables during the operation of information handling systems and computing systems.
Various methods and uses of performance tools for collecting and assessing data and methods of displaying collected data of dependent variables are known for a variety of situations and applications. Examples of such systems and methods will now be presented.
A. J. Blasciak in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,394 describes a software performance analyzer. This patent issued on Apr. 7, 1992 and is assigned to Hewlett-Packard Company. The disclosed subject matter describes a measurement tool that assists software designers in software development cycles in the testing, debugging and optimization of the program under development. The software performance analyzer performs six separate non-intrusive measurements relating to the program consisting of program activity, memory activity, module duration, module usage, inter-module duration and inter-module linkage. The relevant data pertaining to each of these measurements is collected, analyzed and displayed in either a histogram or tabular format.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,455, entitled xe2x80x9cDisplay of Multiple Variable Relationshipsxe2x80x9d, issued to Higgins et al on Apr. 26, 1994 and is assigned to Hewlett-Packard Company. This patent describes methods for graphical and numerical displaying of the joint variation of two or more variables with the variation of a third independent variable. The dependent variables could be chemical concentrations of a given substance. The method pertains to presenting the relationships of two or more related dependent variables in a single graphical format in which the independent variable is allowed to vary continuously over its permitted range. The method permits a continuous display of the changes in an independent variable and the effect on the resulting values of two or more variables that depend on the independent variable. A collection is provided of Cartesian coordinate pairs for each of a sequence of increasing values of the third variable. These coordinate pairs are displayed on a two-dimensional graph on a computer monitor or similar screen with an identification label which indicates the value of the independent variable for each coordinate pair provided on the graph. The data may also be provided in a numerical table. An additional, movable indicator is provided that indicates the-coordinate pair of the dependent variables for the current choice of the independent variable.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,932 entitled xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Dynamically Controlling Remote Processes from a Performance Monitorxe2x80x9d, issued to Chen et al on Jul. 11, 1995, and is assigned to International Business Machines Corporation. This patent discloses graphical user interface subsystems and graph to monitor multiple data values supplied by a data value receiver subsystem. The patent describes and refers to software tools for providing a graphical interface to visually depict various aspects of the data processing system, thereby reducing the amount of time required to analyze the operation of a data processing system.
The description provides for the collection of performance data and the computation of performance statistics. The data is displayed on vertical scales to plot absolute values of the variable data against time on the same Y axis of the graph. Processes of the data processing system to be controlled can be ranked when graphically presented to a user to assist in determining problematic processes that need attention. By means of the graphical user interface, a user can sort and refresh snapshots of the data to facilitate the selection of appropriate process control measures of the data processing system.
The data base technology products for the client/server environment available from IBM, namely DB2(copyright) UDB, Version 5, includes a DB2 performance monitor feature. This feature provides a workstation-based online monitor of variables which simplifies online monitoring and problem analysis of variables of the product of which it is a component. It enables the user to monitor, analyze and optimize the performance of the product and its subsystems. The performance monitor feature includes a graphical user interface for selecting one or more variables from a variety of performance variables and displaying the resultant data on a graph on the display screen. The variables are visually displayed on a graph consisting of an extendable X-axis of time and a variable Y-axis which is based on a percentage of the particular scale value for that variable. In order for a system administrator to obtain a sense of the sensitivity or criticality of the value of the plotted variable it is necessary to obtain an indication of the absolute value of the variable. This can be somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient. First the administrator must determine what percentage of the Y-axis (0 to 100) is the value of the plotted variable at a particular point in time (eg. 53); then a cascading menu is pulled down to reveal a dialog which indicates to the user the scale that the variable is plotted against in the graph (eg. 1052); then the administrator, in this example, must multiply 53xc3x971052=55756; then a further cascading menu is pulled down to obtain a current threshold value set for that particular variable. The above calculated value (example 55756) is compared to the threshold value to obtain a sense of how critical or sensitive is the value of the particular variable. These steps must be repeated for each of the variables depicted on the graph.
A performance monitor is provided in the Windows NT(copyright) product. A typical Windows(copyright) screen is available for displaying the results of the monitoring of one or more variables pertaining to the computer system on which the product is installed. This is a graphical tool for viewing and dynamically changing charts reflecting variables and the current activity of the computer system. The value of a selected variable is displayed on a line graph in which the X-axis is time dependent and the Y-axis is a percentage value of each variable. In order to determine the absolute value of a variable, the number displayed must still be multiplied by a scale factor and compared with a threshold value for each variable on the graph. The Windows NT performance monitor can plot multiple variables on a single graph however a scale factor multiplication is needed for each variable similar to what has been previously described. The operator can only view a trend in the value of the variable but has no clue as to the severity of the situations without picking a value of a variable, multiplying it by a scale factor, and comparing it to a threshold value known to the user through acquired experience.
Although the above systems and methods referred to, which are considered to be examples of those presently known and available, provide improvements over previous methods for monitoring, analyzing and displaying data relating to performance variables of data processing systems, there are still significant deficiencies in the flexibility of these systems for use by a user at an online workstation. Typically the data of the value of the variables is merely displayed to the user with little or no quantitative sense apparent as to the meaning or effect of the variable on the functioning of the system performance. It is difficult and in many instances, meaningless, to look at a graph, whether a graph is in the form of line graph, an area graph or a bar graph, to readily deduce the effective significance of the displayed data.
Monitoring multiple-variable systems is a complex task which is also often time critical. It must be made relatively easy for a user or operator of the system to determine quickly when the system is in a critical state. A quick glance at a computer screen which allows the operator to see key activity variables of the system and determine whether they have reached a certain threshold, is significant. It is also important for the user to be able to readily deduce how far into the danger zone the variables are and the accumulated effect and trends of the variables over a period of time, as to whether the variables stay in the danger zone or gradually build up or dip in and out of the danger zone. Awareness by the user as to the relative severity of the values of the variables can be crucial to the effective functioning of the system.
The above problems are compounded in information handling systems by the fact that the variables do not lie on the same scale. It is therefore difficult to plot these variables against each other and to assess their combined result on the operation of the system without requiring the operator to do some calculations to determine the absolute values and compare these against known threshold values for the variables. For example, percentage of central processing usage could be measured on a scale of 0 to 100, whereas the number of input/output reads could be measured from zero to thousands, and an indication of response time would be measured from 0 to 20 seconds, all on very different scales. It is difficult to represent these variables to an operator in one quick view that will give the user the necessary information in one glance as to the presence of a critical situation. Typically, operators and users of systems do not want to deal with absolute values since they are only meaningful in relation to a threshold value or a particular trend for that variable.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and more useful multi-variable graphical interface and method for collecting and displaying data of variables on a computer screen.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for a multi-variable graphical interface which overcomes many of the known problems of existing interfaces for displaying variable data.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for displaying variable data of activities obtained from a variety of information handling systems for industries needing to do monitoring of multi-variable systems and display the results on a computer screen.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a graphical user interface for displaying multi-variable data of activities which is user friendly and readily provides more significant indications to the user as to the criticality of the values of the variables than presently available systems.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a program storage device and a computer-readable memory element containing instructions executable by a computer to implement a new and more useful multi-variable graphical user interface and method for collecting and displaying data of variables on a computer screen.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a graphical user interface displaying representations of the values of at least one variable on a display of a computing system to provide indications as to how the variables relate to pre-determined threshold values of the variables over time and where the variables relate to an operation of an information handling system. The graphical user interface includes at least one zone in a screen on the display of the computing system such that the zones represent threshold values for each of the variables. The interface further includes representations of the values of said variables over time overlying the zones in accordance with the threshold value of the zones so as to provide a visual indication of the functioning of the information handling system.
A further aspect of the invention is directed to a method of displaying representations of at least one performance variable of an information handling system on a display of a computing system where the method is performed by a programmed computer system. The method includes the steps of providing at least one zone in a screen on the display of the computing system such that the zones represent threshold values of the variables and providing representations of the values of the variables on the screen within said zones such that over time, a visual impression is provided by said representations as to the performance of the information handling system.
According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a computer-readable memory for storing instructions executable in a computer for implementing the method of displaying representations of at least one performance variable of an information handling system on a display of a computing system where the method is performed by a programmed computer system comprising the steps of providing at least one zone in a screen on said display of the computing system, such that each zone represents a threshold value of the performance variables; and providing representations of values of said variables on the screen over time and overlying said zones such that a visual impression is provided by said representations as to the performance of the information handling system.
According to yet a further aspect of the invention there is provided a program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer for implementing on the computer a graphical user interface displaying a representation of the values of at least one variable on a computing system display to provide indications as to how said variables relate to predetermined threshold values of said variables over time, and where said variables relate to an operation of an information handling system, comprising at least one zone in a screen on said display such that each zone represents a threshold value for each of said variables; and a representation of the values of each of said variables over time overlying said zones in accordance with the threshold values of said zones, so as to provide a visual indication of the functioning of the information handling system.